Nana, the Great Communicator

by Susie Black

If there is an inheritable gene for storytelling, mine came from my mother’s mother. My nana should have been a writer. No one could tell a story like her. She was the eldest of six children of a modest immigrant family from Eastern Europe that settled in Boston at the turn of the century.

 My great-grandfather was a tailor who managed to clothe, feed, and shelter his children, but there was precious little left over for extravagances like a day at the cinema for one child, let alone for six. Nana had an older cousin, Jenny Weinstein, who played piano at the local silent-movie house, and she was able to get a free pass for relatives. Nana and her next-oldest sibling traded weeks going to the serialized show every Saturday afternoon at the theater. Then they came home to tell the story to the other kids.

The other kids hated it when it was my great-aunt Doris’s turn because she gave a short synopsis and called it a day. They were thrilled when it was Nana’s turn. She set up two rows of chairs in the parlor like in the movie house, served popcorn, dimmed the lights, and played background music on the victrola-style phonograph as she recounted the episode of the serial. Nana would take her time, slowly build up to the cliffhanger, and stop talking right before the finale. Nana would wait until my great uncle Murray would yell, “Go on, Rae, go on!” before she’d finish telling the story. Talk about pacing and how to build tension in the finale. Nana had it down pat.

Like many families, once my nana’s siblings grew up and left home, they scattered across the country. Nana knew the importance of keeping her family together, no matter how many miles separated them. Since a phone was not an option, as the oldest child, Nana was chosen to write letters to family members living far from home. With the same level of dedication as the postman, come rain, sleet, or snow, war or peace, prosperous times or the depths of a national depression, my blind-as-a-bat without her coke-bottle-thick glasses nana sat every Monday night at her dining room table and wrote a letter to each of her siblings. Her letters sewed the thread that kept our close-knit tribe connected.

When I was in my sophomore year of college, my family moved from Los Angeles to Miami. Despite their valiant attempts to persuade me to join them, I wasn’t interested in relocating to “God’s waiting room,” and remained out west. The good news was that Nana added me to her list of weekly letter-writing recipients. Lonesome for my family, Nana’s weekly letter was an eagerly anticipated lifeline to my family’s heart and soul. That letter was the glue that kept our family bound together, no matter how far from home one of us wandered.

As the designated town crier, Nana’s letters were more like a newsletter. A date with her friends at the movies? After reading her letter, I was seated next to her. She reported who went, what they wore, if they were late or early; where they sat, if they had a snack, what the snack was, editorials on how much the snacks and the movie tickets cost, and every detail of the movie that was so complete, the recipient of her letter could write a decent review based on Nana’s commentary.  If she described what an attendee wore, I could close my eyes and picture the outfit perfectly. Her descriptions were so detailed and rich that if she described a meal, I could smell the wafting aroma and taste the food.

Out of sentimentality or maybe a sixth sense that someday I’d need them, I kept every one of those letters. Like Nana, they were strong-willed and hearty; surviving dogs, a child, countless moves, several major earthquakes, and a devastating house fire. I had no formal creative writing training when I decided to write my first manuscript. I had a story to tell, but no clue how to tell it. I instinctively pulled the carefully wrapped packets of letters out of the storage box and re-read every one of them. I could picture Nana at the dining room table writing the letters. I heard her voice inside my head speaking to me. My long-gone, full-service Nana had given me all the tools I needed. I re-packed the letters, started to write, and thanks to Nana, I never stopped.

My debut humorous cozy mystery Death by Sample Size was published in 2021. I now have eight published books with two more slated for release this year. I kept Nana’s communication skills and distinctive voice in mind while writing all my books. Somewhere in the great beyond, Nana is smiling with approval.

Named Best US Author of the Year by N. N. Lights Book Heaven, award-winning cozy mystery author Susie Black was born in the Big Apple but now calls sunny Southern California home. Like the protagonist in her Holly Swimsuit Mystery Series, Susie is a successful apparel sales executive. Susie began telling stories as soon as she learned to talk. Now she’s telling all the stories from her garment industry experiences in humorous mysteries.

She reads, writes, and speaks Spanish, albeit with an accent that sounds like Mildred from Michigan went on a Mexican vacation and is trying to fit in with the locals. Since life without pizza and ice cream as her core food groups wouldn’t be worth living, she’s a dedicated walker to keep her girlish figure. A voracious reader, she’s also an avid stamp collector and sailor. Susie lives with a highly intelligent man and has one incredibly brainy but smart-aleck adult son who inexplicably blames his sarcasm on an inherited genetic defect.

Looking for more? Contact Susie at:

Website: www.authorsusieblack.com

E-mail: mysteries_@authorsusieblack.com